2012 police shootings

Officers here firing more often

10TV News crews were on the scene of a police cruiser theft and shooting on the far east side.

Deadly police shootings this year

Michael J. Kelly, 36

Jan. 6

Kelly was shot by two officers as he attempted to flee the scene of a burglary at an East Side
auto-parts store. He tried to hit an officer with his vehicle, police said.

Kevin Boozer, 28

May 22

Boozer, said to be high on bath salts, was holding his girlfriend hostage inside a Far West Side
home. When SWAT officers stormed the house, they saw him holding a knife to the woman’s throat and
shot him.

Derick Alexander, 51

July 14

Alexander, a domestic-violence suspect, stabbed an officer in a Hilltop garage and was shot and
killed by the same officer.

George M. Hall, 22

July 15

Two officers on the West Side shot and killed Hall after he pointed a gun at them.

Destin Thomas, 21

July 17

Thomas was shot and killed by an officer responding to a 911 call the man made at his Far East
Side apartment to report a burglary. A gun was found next to his body, but police haven’t said he
had it in his hand or was pointing it at the officer.

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Columbus police have fired their guns at people more times this year than police in some cities of similar size.The city has seen 14 such shootings — the most per capita of seven cities examined by The Dispatch.

Five shootings in Columbus were fatal. Last year, Columbus was a close third among the group of seven, with 20 shootings that killed eight people.

Cincinnati had the most officer-involved shootings per capita last year, with 11 fatal shootings in a city of nearly 300,000 people. Memphis police shot at 17 people, killing four, in 2011.

After three deadly shootings here in four days — the latest of which left a burglary victim dead — some people have questioned Columbus police officers’ use of deadly force.

Chief Kimberley Jacobs said this week that her officers are under fire, often without provocation. She cited a case in May when someone shot at detectives who were sitting in their cruiser. They did not return gunfire, because a crowd of people had gathered nearby.

“Every day, somebody is out there ready to confront us with a gun, with a knife, ready to attack us,” she said. Despite the number of shootings this year, rates of deadly force are still low. In Columbus last year, there were 2.5 shootings per 100,000 residents.

Sgt. Jim Gilbert, president of Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, said it’s unfair to compare Columbus shootings with those in other cities.

“Individuals in Columbus are more brazen in confronting the police while in possession of a weapon,” he said.

Gilbert said he is worried that increased scrutiny could make officers second-guess themselves when faced with danger.“I don’t want to see any officers delaying in their response to a suspect’s actions, especially a suspect armed with a weapon, because they’re worried about being the next statistic,” he said. “We’re worried about saving lives. We’re not worried about statistics.”

Last year was one of the deadliest for officers nationwide, and for the first time in more than a decade, officers were more likely to be killed by gunfire than in a car crash. Of 163 fatalities, 70 were firearm-related, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

This year is on track to be less deadly for officers. There have been 59 officers killed, 20 of whom were shot.

David Klinger, a former officer turned criminology and criminal-justice professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said officer-involved shootings often come in inexplicable bunches, prompting questions from residents and the news media.“When you have a cluster of circumstances where officers had legal warrant to shoot and they do, then so be it,” he said. “That’s what officers are trained to do and what we expect them to do so they can go home at night.”

But that doesn’t mean residents shouldn’t ask whether a shooting was a legitimate exercise of deadly force, Klinger said.

In four of the five deadly cases so far this year in Columbus, officers were stabbed, had guns pointed at them or a vehicle driven at them. The fifth case, the shooting death of 21-year-old Destin Thomas outside his Far East Side apartment on Tuesday, is less clear. Thom-as called 911 to report a burglary, and the officer who responded shot him. A gun was found near his body, but police have not said whether he was pointing it at the officer or even holding it when he was shot.

After a shooting, police departments need to be as transparent as possible with residents — about what prompted the officer to fire, the investigatory process and what will happen next, said John Firman, research director for the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

“What was used, why was it used and was it an appropriate use of force?” Firman said. “Help me understand what happened so I can be fair as I evaluate it.”

Thomas’ case, and the others this year, will be reviewed to determine whether Police Division policy was followed and also will be sent to a grand jury for review. That process can take months.

Police shootings in Columbus are almost always found to be justified. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, police actions should be judged against how a reasonable officer would act under the same circumstances, rather than with the benefit of hindsight.

From 2004 to 2010, all Columbus officers who shot and killed someone were found to have acted appropriately, according to internal and grand-jury reviews.